Have a seat

SIR - Perhaps we could learn a little about punctuality from a former chairman of the Great Eastern Railway until 1895, my great-grandfather Charles Henry Parkes.

He was known as Punctuality Parkes, and it was his practice to have a chair carried on to the footbridge at Liverpool Street Station. He would sit with his gold hunter watch in his hand and watch the arrival and departure of trains.

If a train arrived late, he would send for the driver and ask him the reason; if it was the driver's fault, he would be reprimanded, but if it was due to a mechanical or signalling fault, the appropriate engineer would be sent for and told to correct the problem. I am told that, after six months of this regime, lateness on the GER was almost unheard of.

Perhaps Stephen Byers could have a chair at Waterloo and Tony Blair at Paddington for a trial period.